Relative: Rep. Conyers Won’t Seek Re-Election Due To Health

DETROIT (CBSMiami/AP) — Embattled Democrat John Conyers may be wrapping up his political career.

A relative says Conyers, who is battling sexual harassment allegations from former female staffers, won’t seek re-election to a 28th term in Congress.

Michigan state Sen. Ian Conyers, a grandson of John Conyers’ brother, told The New York Times for a story Tuesday that the 88-year-old Democrat’s doctor “advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him, just in terms of his health.”

Ian Conyers told the newspaper that his great-uncle — the longest-serving current U.S. House member — “is not resigning. He is going to retire.”

The report didn’t specify how Ian Conyers knew of the congressman’s plans. He said he plans to run for John Conyers’ seat in Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press left the younger Conyers a message seeking comment Tuesday.

John Conyers’ attorney, Arnold Reed, would not confirm or deny that the congressman was planning to retire in a phone conversation with The Associated Press early Tuesday.

He said Ian Conyers has not been “part of the conversations” between Reed, Conyers and his wife, Monica Conyers, regarding the congressman’s future.

Conyers, who was first elected in 1964, easily won re-election last year in the heavily Democratic 13th District.

But following the mounting allegations of sexual harassment, he has faced growing calls to resign from colleagues in the House, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Reed has said Conyers’ health would be the paramount consideration in whether he decides to step down from his House seat.

He has already stepped aside from his position as ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Reed said Tuesday that Conyers likely will call the radio show because his client shouldn’t “risk his health” by traveling outside in the cold weather.

John Conyers returned to Detroit from Washington last week and was hospitalized on Wednesday after complaining that he felt light-headed.

The House Ethics Committee is reviewing allegations of harassment against John Conyers.

On Monday, a woman who said she worked for him for more than a decade said he slid his hand up her skirt and rubbed her thighs while she was sitting next to him in the front row of a church.

Elisa Grubbs made the allegation in an affidavit released late Monday by her attorney, Lisa Bloom.

Grubbs is the cousin of another accuser, Marion Brown, who reached a confidential settlement with Conyers over sexual harassment allegations, but broke the confidentiality agreement to speak publicly last week.

Bloom posted Grubbs’ affidavit on Twitter and confirmed to The Associated Press that it was genuine.

Grubbs’ affidavit says that she worked for Conyers in various roles from approximately 2001 to about 2013.

“Rep. Conyers slid his hand up my skirt and rubbed my thighs while I was sitting next to him in the front row of a church,” Grubbs said. “I was startled and sprang to my feet and exclaimed, ‘He just ran his hand up my thigh!’ Other staffers witnessed the event.”

She also said that she saw Conyers touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Brown and other female staffers on “multiple occasions.”

Grubbs said witnessing such harassment “was a regular part of life while working in the office of Rep. Conyers.”

One time when Grubbs was at Conyers home, she said he came out of the bathroom naked when he knew she was in the room.

Reed told the Detroit Free Press that the allegations by Grubbs are “another instance of tomfoolery from the mouth of Harvey Weinstein’s attorney.” Bloom previously represented Hollywood executive Weinstein, who is accused of sexual misconduct by a number of women. She quit Weinstein’s team after the allegations became public and now represents sexual harassment victims.